--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Monday, September 27th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Don't feel bad if you're confused about COVID booster shots. The Biden administration did change its stance. The CDC and FDA said slightly different things. Critics say it's too soon for boosters because so many people in developing countries haven't even been able to get a first shot.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now, there's a lot of information out there. We found a solid write-up in The Wall Street Journal that breaks down what you need to know.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: U.S. health authorities are still reviewing data on potential boosters for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. For those who got the Pfizer shot, the CDC recommends a booster for people 65 and up. Same deal for people between the ages of 50 and 64 who have certain underlying medical conditions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For younger people, it's about understanding your risk level. And that's where it gets more complicated. Doctors say the biggest gray area is for people aged 18 to 49. If you're in this group, you and your doctor have to assess your own personal risk.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There are guidelines, but things aren't always clear cut. Pregnancy could be a reason to get a booster. Living with a family member who's immunocompromised could too.
--:-- [Barbara Kent's story begins]
--:-- Barbara Kent: I remember what it was like to be woken up in the middle of the night by what sounded like an explosion. It was the summer of 1945. I was 13 years old. I was at a sleepaway camp in the New Mexico desert.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All the campers rushed outside to see the sky turn bright. A few hours later, white flakes started to fall. The girls were excited. They thought it was snow and they played in it. Only these flakes were cold. They were warm.
--:-- Barbara Kent: Those flakes were radioactive debris, fallout from the world's first atomic bomb detonation. That fallout spread over thousands of square miles.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: National Geographic has details about the Manhattan Project's Trinity test. Officials chose the site because they thought it was isolated. The truth, though, was thousands of people were living within a 40-mile radius.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As Nat Geo explains, people exposed during the Trinity test haven't been eligible for government compensation. The impact was widespread.
--:-- Barbara Kent: One family living near the site knew something was wrong when their chickens and dog died. Burns appeared on cattle. A health care provider 100 miles away noticed a surge in infant deaths. She said 35 babies died in one month.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: When she was 30, Barbara Kent realized, of the girl she played with in the desert under those warm flakes, she was the last one still alive. And she's lived through a number of serious illnesses. She had her thyroid removed and several forms of cancer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A physician involved with the Manhattan Project tells Nat Geo, officials knew people were probably overexposed to radiation, but there wasn't a solid effort to figure out how to deal with the aftermath.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There's an effort now in Congress to expand an existing compensation law to cover survivors of the Trinity test. One member of Congress has family who lived near the site and died of cancer. She says, decades later, it's time to recognize the injustice.
--:-- Shamita Basu: A new story in Wired really stood out to us because it's about a medical nightmare that could happen to anyone. A woman named Catherine went to the hospital in extreme pain from her endometriosis.
--:-- Catherine: I had been prescribed opioids before and the doctors in the hospital gave me IV pain medication. But then something changed. I was told I couldn't have any more opioids, and I was discharged. And I was still in a lot of pain.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Weeks later, a letter from her gynecologist said her doctor was terminating their relationship. It cited the Narc's Care database. Catherine had never heard about it.
--:-- Maya Solovitz: If you're prescribed a controlled substance, you basically have a hidden credit score that determines your risk for opioid addiction and overdose. And so doctors who prescribe to you look at this score and pharmacists who dispense medications look at this score and they can see supposedly if you are at high risk and whether you should receive the prescription or not.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Narc's Care is meant to help prevent opioid addiction, a big problem in America. Its algorithm looks for the type of behavior that's common in people who are abusing drugs. Things like doctor shopping when someone goes to multiple physicians in an effort to get more drugs.
--:-- Maya Solovitz: But Solovitz points out that algorithm can prevent people from getting the medicine they need. In Catherine's case, the system seems to have thought she was abusing drugs because her dogs had been prescribed powerful opioids under her name.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The company behind Narc's Care defends the product and says it's rare for a pet prescription to affect someone's score. But critics say there are many other glitches. One study found cancer patients were often flagged as doctor shoppers because they end up seeing a lot of specialists.
--:-- Maya Solovitz: Solovitz explains how the consequences of this can be severe. If you are considered to be someone who is misusing drugs, you are essentially a medical pariah. You can lose your access to your doctor. You can be thrown out of the emergency room. You can be publicly humiliated. You can be screamed at at pharmacies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: All kinds of things happen because when people think of addiction they think of crime and they think that you trying to scam them and that whatever pain you may have is fake.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For Catherine, this algorithm is affecting her life and health. Because of a number produced by a database, she's worried about what's going to happen the next time her condition flares up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Pandas have famously complicated sex lives. Every new panda that's born in a zoo is a major global event. And now research shows a key to keeping pandas motivated to mate in the wild might be making sure they're not too happy.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The Times of London has a scoop on new research showing left unchecked, being too happy, might lead to a panda extinction. Now, biologists, they found out when pandas get really happy about where they live, they just stay put. They're so comfortable, they don't go out looking for mates.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And no panda romance means no future generations. This is serious business. At last count, there were only around 1,800 pandas in the wild. They're very close to being endangered.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, there's something important to understand about pandas. They are notoriously picky about where they live. What makes them happy is a place with a lot of bamboo, just the right altitude, the right climate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If they don't like a place, they keep moving. The study's authors say that pickiness may hold the key. They suggest conserving wild panda habitats in small patches rather than vast areas.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Tired of living quarters, they say, may motivate pandas to get out more, sort of like those micro apartments that are all the rage in the Bay Area and New York City, while small spaces may keep pandas in the dating market.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.
